EP and Council reach agreement on bathing waters standards 

Following negotiations under a conciliation process, the European Parliament and member states have agreed on revisions to the 1976 Bathing Waters Directive. As soon as EU environment ministers have given their final approval, member states will need to transpose the directive into national law within two years.

As from 2015, the number of parameters to measure the quality of bathing waters will be cut from nineteen to two. Instead of three categories, there will be four with 'sufficient' added to 'excellent', 'good' and 'insufficient'. According to the Parliament, the new measures should reduce the incidence of bathers contracting diseases (generally relatively benign respiratory or digestive infections) by a third. Currently 12% of bathers are estimated to catch such diseases.

But not everyone is entirely happy with the new 'sufficient' category. Surfers Against Sewage (see EurActiv 25 April 2005 for earlier story on this issue) Campaign Director Richard Hardy told the BBC that the category was a "get out of jail free" card. As part of a future review, due by 2020 at the latest, the Commission is being asked to consider whether or not to phase out the 'sufficient' classification.

Many MEPs also wanted to ensure that bathers could access more regularly updated information. Under the new legislation, bathers will be able to access real time information online and read information on the spot about, for example, sources of pollution, reports of pollution incidents and reasons why bathing is not permitted.

Under the legislation, the Commission will, on 30 April every year, publish an annual summary report on bathing water quality in the EU.